The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), a global leader in art and design education, will bring together students, faculty, staff and the public in a newly renovated, street-level space in the heart of Chicago’s Loop at 33 E. Washington Street. Opening this fall, SAIC will relocate its art galleries, exhibitions and exhibition studies offices and graduate student studios from the Sullivan Galleries at 33 S. State Street where they have been housed for a decade.
Located at the corner of Washington and Wabash, the four-story, 62,000-square-foot space offers 26,000 square feet of public galleries, 60 individual studios for SAIC’s graduate students, three critique spaces, offices and a student lounge and work area.
As the public arm of SAIC’s department of exhibitions and exhibition studies, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Galleries will feature cutting-edge, thought-provoking contemporary art. The galleries will seek to generate new research around issues, ideas and professional practices in art and design while stimulating dialogue among the wider Chicago arts community.
“There is so much happening at SAIC’s galleries—from showcasing the work of our global student body to housing provocative exhibitions featuring leading artists from around the world like Yoko Ono and SAIC alums Jeff Koons and Rashid Johnson—and I am so excited that we can bring these artists closer to Chicago’s residents and visitors through our new, street-level space at 33 E. Washington Street,” said SAIC president, Elissa Tenny.
The opening of the galleries and studios at 33 E. Washington Street marks a step forward in SAIC’s commitment to sustainability. The space features energy-efficient lighting, a new ventilation system, recycled carpet and resurfaced flooring from the building’s original, 106-year-old floor. On January 1, the school announced that the campus achieved its goal of becoming carbon-neutral, a goal that was set in 2008 after joining the Second Nature Carbon Commitment.
